Final Response to A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
Francie counted the year’s passing not by the days or the months but by the holidays that came along. She saw the good in everything, sometimes though it started to get mixed up with the truth. If you tell yourself something, so many times the reality of it gets changed and it isn’t reality anymore.
Francie lived every day. Some days she only grew one day older and others she grew months older. Every Saturday night she stayed up waiting for her dad to get home. Every night it added another number until they all added up to that she missed him. She didn’t see that before because she didn’t know what it was. Francie learned what different things meant and what they added up to, after looking at it through reality’s eyes.
Parents try to do right for us but it doesn’t always seem or turn out that way. Johnny, made sure that Francie received flowers for her graduation and he just seemed to know to get them in advance. We have to doubt ourselves and our parents sometimes, but we can surprise ourselves sometimes just when there seems to be no options left.
Francie dreamt for hours on the fire escape stairs about what it could be. Things only happen when the fire comes; her fire was her father’s death. She ran down the rest of the stairs without interrupting her life with observations. The Nolans were going along step by step, but to get to the heavens you sometimes have to go back to the beginning and restart clean, restart simple, restart innocent.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn had a lot of good points but it was written in ways that I couldn’t relate to. I don’t have to worry about life changing decisions, but I could relate to a loving family, and to try not to doubt myself. You don’t have to count the number of times you get cut down if you count the number of times you grow back closer to the sky.
